Page 2 of Save the Dance

When a murmur of agreement passed through the room, Jason nodded. So, Regina Charm liked to spring surprises on her hosts, huh? Well, she wouldn’t catch him napping. He’d post one of the house staff on the widow’s walk bright and early Friday morning. They’d sound the alarm the moment a car turned onto the long, curving driveway that led to the Captain’s Cottage.

Greg cleared his throat. “Everyone should have Ms. Charm’s agenda.” From a list that included practically every business in town, the editor had selected the places she’d like to see, as well as events she wanted to attend. It was more than enough to fill a crowded schedule. “Like I told Jason, Regina is prone to surprises. If your shop isn’t on her list, she still might pop in for a quick visit. Stay on your toes.”

One by one, the mayor called for brief reports on the plans to entertain the editor. From Something Old, Something New on Bridal Carriage Way to the bed-and-breakfast on Union Street, owners had arranged for tours of their businesses. Restaurants in the area had signed up to host Ms. Charm and her party at so many breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that the woman was in danger of needing an entire new wardrobe before she headed back to the city. Invitations to several weddings had been issued by brides who were eager for the opportunity to have their special day mentioned in Weddings Today. Plus, plenty of leisure activities had been planned in case the editor wanted to take advantage of the warmth of early summer. Last, but certainly not least, Regina would be the guest of honor at a special presentation of the Heart’s Landing pageant. Usually performed in the fall, the play portrayed the time Captain Thaddeus had braved a hurricane in order to make port in time for his wife’s birthday.

“I guess that sums it up.” Mayor Thomas rubbed his hands together. “I’ll be on call to serve as Ms. Charm’s escort and answer any questions she might have throughout her visit here. One final word—I don’t have to tell you how important this competition is for our town. With ceremonies taking place 365 days a year here in Heart’s Landing, we pride ourselves on delivering the perfect wedding to every bride. But hard times lay ahead if we lose the designation as America’s Top Wedding Destination. If anything goes awry, and I mean even the smallest hiccup, I’ll expect to hear from you right away.”

Greg scanned the room, his blue eyes meeting and registering agreement everywhere. Satisfied that his team knew what to do, he grinned. “All right now, we’ve got this. Let me hear that good old Heart’s Landing spirit. What do you say?”

Jason, along with everyone else in the room, lifted an imaginary glass of champagne. He chimed in with the rest in the familiar toast. “The best is yet to be!”

“Yes, it will.” Greg ran a hand over his bald pate. “Okay, folks. Time to head home now and get some rest.”

Jason couldn’t agree more. If Regina Charm was half as difficult to deal with as Mildred and Cheri said she was, everyone in town would need to keep their wits about them during her visit.

Chapter Two

On the fourth floor of the Weddings Today headquarters, a fluorescent light hummed in the ceiling over Tara Stewart’s desk. The air handlers for the towering office building in lower Manhattan kicked into high gear. Tara pulled her cardigan tighter as tasteless, odorless air spilled cold into her cubicle. Her chair emitted an annoying squeak when she tipped forward, but her focus on the image on the computer monitor didn’t waver. She traced a finger over one of a dozen photographs. Grabbing her magnifying glass from the pencil holder, Tara ignored the bride’s smiling face, the ostentatious cascade of flowers clutched in a pair of perfectly manicured hands, the fortune in diamonds that sparkled from her neck and ears. Instead, she panned the lens slowly over the wedding gown. “Well, if that don’t beat all,” she whispered.

Her breath on hold, she unearthed several designs from the scattered stacks on her desktop. Ideal for summer weddings, the gowns had been featured in last November’s edition of Weddings Today. She thumbed through the pile until she found the one she wanted and treated it to the same scrutiny she’d given the image on her computer. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. There was no doubt about it. Kate Steven had worn a Sophie Olsen original when she’d walked down the aisle on an exclusive Long Island estate. Remorse stirred in her chest. Tara batted it down. She’d worked at Weddings Today long enough to learn that climbing the corporate ladder meant stepping over someone else. In this case, Kate Steven.

This is big. Really big.

Paper rustled as Tara’s fingers trembled with the thrill of being the first to stumble onto a hot story. Afraid she might drop the magnifying glass in her excitement, she returned it to the holder. What next?

“Van?” She swiveled toward her cubicle mate and one of two dozen other junior staff who were hungry for a byline in the nation’s top wedding magazine. “I need a second pair of eyes on this. Do you see the same thing I do?”

“What’s up?” Three feet away, Vanessa Robinson ran a hand over the wiry, jet-colored hair she’d tamed into sleek braids. She spun toward Tara. Her dark eyes bright with expectation, she studied the screen beyond Tara’s shoulder. Van’s mouth formed a round O. “Are those pictures from Kate Steven’s wedding?”

“They are. They just landed in my inbox.” Among her many tasks as a cub reporter for Weddings Today, Tara wrote the captions that accompanied candid shots from the dozen or so weddings featured on the collage page of each edition.

“Oh, my word! I never thought I’d see an A-lister like her relegated to the back of the magazine.”

Tara nodded. “I know, right?” The wedding of a spokesmodel for one of the country’s biggest designers would normally receive top billing. But any hopes of splashing Kate’s picture on the cover of Weddings Today had been dashed when the bride had insisted on an uber-private ceremony and turned down the magazine’s request for press credentials. “See anything else odd?”

“Well, Kate looks gorgeous, but that’s nothing new.” The supermodel was knocking on the door to forty, but the camera still loved her flawless skin and shiny golden hair. The not-so-blushing bride had chosen a slinky off-white gown that draped the curves of her six-foot frame like it was made for her. “I love the cut of that dress. It’s so dreamy and …” Vanessa fell silent, her eyes narrowing as she traced the lines of the gown on the screen. Her hand and her jaw dropped. “Isn’t that a Sophie Olsen? What’s she doing in that?”

“I was asking the same question myself. Did she think no one would notice?”

“How could they not?”

“Exactly.” Kate Steven had been the face of the Donna Marsha brand for five years. Her choice to walk down the aisle in another designer’s wedding gown was an unforgiveable slight. “I smell a story.”

Tara pressed her thumb into the soft flesh under her chin while she tapped her forefinger against her upper lip. The shiver of excitement she’d felt moments earlier turned into a rumble. This could be the one. The story that proved she’d been right to leave Savannah and follow her dreams to New York. The story that warranted a byline and a teaser on the cover of Weddings Today. If she played her cards right, it might actually help her erase the dreaded junior from her title and propel her into an office of her own. One that had a door and four walls that reached all the way to the ceiling. Unlike her current space in the bullpen, where cubicles topped out at mid-chest and privacy was a pipe dream.

Not that she’d be around much to enjoy her new digs. No. Once she became a full-fledged senior reporter, she’d be too busy covering far-flung celebrity weddings or protecting the magazine’s readership from unethical vendors—the kind who promised the moon and delivered nothing—to actually sit behind her desk and stare out the window at the dull, gray cement exterior of the building next door.

Wasn’t it about time something big came her way? Her parents had expected her to follow in her sisters’ footsteps and join the family business. When she’d chosen a different path, they hadn’t been able to hide their disappointment. She’d been trying to prove herself in their eyes ever since. But it had taken longer than she’d expected. Oh, she’d known she’d have to pay her dues. The day she’d broken up with her high-school sweetheart and moved to New York, she’d sat down at the tiny kitchen table in her fifth-floor walk-up and had a frank, heart-to-heart chat with herself. This was her time, she’d decided. If she was going to succeed and make her parents proud, she had to buckle down and get serious. And that meant setting her personal life on the shelf. One day, she’d find her Mr. Right. For the foreseeable future, though, she’d concentrate on making a name for herself. She’d focus on writing about weddings and not dreaming about her own.

And that’s exactly what she’d done.

In the two years since she’d landed a job at Weddings Today, she’d written dozens of articles on such not-so-fascinating topics as the differences between Point D’Esprit and Chantilly lace. She’d dutifully touted the advantages of serving sparkling wine over champagne in companion pieces for a senior reporter’s article on receptions. She’d done all the legwork and consolidated the research for her higher-paid and more respected bosses on Reporter’s Row.

She hadn’t expected it to be easy to get ahead in such a competitive market—and it hadn’t been—but surely her time had come. The more she thought about it, the more certain she grew that a juicy tidbit from Kate’s wedding was just the ticket she needed to propel her career in the right direction. She jiggled her computer mouse, but the laptop had put itself to sleep, something it did whenever she ignored it for too long. With a good-natured grumble, she logged back in. She sent the image of the model wearing the inappropriate dress to the printer and scooped up the photo of the Sophie Olsen.

“What are you going to do?” The wheels of Vanessa’s office chair rumbled as she returned to her half of the tiny cubicle.

“The first step is to convince Ms. Charm to let me look into it.” The Executive Editor for Weddings Today, Regina Charm had to approve any story her junior staff deemed worthy of investigation. “Once I get the go-ahead, I’ll do the research. Talk to Kate. And Donna Marsha. Or, at least, their assistants.” She had to admit that the odds of a junior reporter getting face time with two of the biggest names in wedding fashion were nil, even for an important story like this one. And wasn’t that always the way? In a bizarre version of Catch-22, she had to have a big scoop to boost her up onto the next rung of the corporate ladder, but to get it, she needed access to people who wouldn’t give the time of day to lowly junior reporters. “Somehow, I’ll get to the bottom of this and learn why a spokesmodel for one brand would wear a competitor’s dress.”

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